Public Accounts Committee and Oversight Function in Nigeria: A Tower Built on Sinking Sand

Kenneth Enoch Okpala

Abstract

Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly (PAC) is one of the highly empowered committeesestablished by the standing orders of both houses to examine federal government (FGN) accounts showing theappropriation of the sums granted to meet the public expenditure and the Auditor's report thereon. This studywas carried out to probe the effectiveness of the Committee’s oversight function on audited reports of FGN toaddress the significant financial indiscipline and wastages of national resources in Nigeria public sector. Thepopulation of the study consists of 496 members of National Assembly, 29 Ministries and 5 Commissions. Thesample size is made up of 150 staff selected at random. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit response andZ-test confirmed the hypothesis. The result reveals that PAC has not effectively exercise her oversight functiondue to late submission of audited reports by Auditor General of the Federation, weak regulatory framework andpoor committee members’ qualification and experience. The study recommended that: PAC members’appointment should be based on professional competence and cognate experience, regulatory framework shouldbe overhauled and time frame for submission of financial and audited reports and PAC examination should bestrictly in line with the 1999 constitution with punishment awarded for non-compliance.

To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the 'ccsenet.org' domain to your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.